‘Women can never be unclean’, says Congress leader Jayamma Balaraj

Bellary: Congress leader Ms Jayamma Balaraj who is all set to be elected to the legislative council, vows to eradicate the "meaningless custom" of considering women 'unclean' when they are menstruating.

Recalling how she had rebelled against this custom in her teens in her village in Chitradurga and convinced her family elders to scrap the ban, she admitted that eradicating this custom overnight was well nigh impossible, as the custom is ingrained in the community.

"I go and meet the community heads across and put all efforts to see that this pointless custom is put to an end through awareness programes. All we need is one educated girl in a family to get a family to end this custom", she remarked.

Her other priorities include constructing toilets for women followed by housing as Kadu Gollas traditionally live in huts. She also wants to set up schools, appoint teachers to teach Hindi and English language in the villages, empowering community children with language skills that help them close the gap with urban children.

"Unfortunately, even though our community has all the traits of a Scheduled Tribe, we are still treated as a Backward Tribe, denying us a bouquet of benefits," she said, adding "education changes a lot of things but the community needs reservation if it has to transform."

She suggested that Gollara hattis be designated as revenue villages so that they can benefit from the State government's schemes, leading to an increase in education and health levels among the backward community.